Author:Paul Theroux
This fabulous, far-reaching book breathtakingly captures the tumult, ambition, hardship and serenity that mark modern India.
Theroux’s characters risk venturing far beyond its well-worn paths to discover woe or truth or peace. A holidaying middle-aged couple veer heedlessly from idyll to chaos. A buttoned-up Boston lawyer finds relief in Mumbai’s reeking slums. A young woman befriends an elephant in Bangalore. We also meet Indian characters as distinctive as they are indicative of their country’s subtle ironies: an executive who yearns to become a holy beggar, an earnest young striver whose personality is transformed by acquiring an American accent, a miracle-working guru, and more.
The Elephanta Suite urges us towards a fresh, compelling, and often inspiring notion of India and its effect on those who try to lose — or find — themselves there.
Destined to join the canon of great works about India
—— Good Book GuideTheroux at his best
—— Today , IndiaBeautifully paced, sexy and disturbing
—— Washington PostI still remember the electrifying effect it had upon me when it was published in 1969. At various stages of life I have become almost possessed by it... The book shimmers with life in every paragraph
—— A. N. Wilson , Daily TelegraphA subtle, elusive novel making its mysterious way forward by side glances and half-gleams, by sudden small illuminations and half-hidden ironies, by a tenderness that is half-mocking and a mockery that is half-tender
—— Evening StandardExhibits extraordinary originality
—— John Bayley , IndependentSaramago can transform banal sentiments into unexpected profundities
—— David McAllister , TLSEarle seems to have little trouble expanding his range from a three-minute song to a 300-page narrative... And though the novel comes no closer to establishing the facts of Hank Williams's death, it certainly reveals a good deal of truth behind it
—— Alfred Hickling , GuardianA witty, heartfelt story of hope, forgiveness and redemption
—— Booklist